MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI – Raymond J. Kostrzewa has requested a recount of the vote for Muskegon County 14th Circuit judge, a race he narrowly lost to Annette Smedley according to the pre-recount tally.

“I fully respect and accept the will of the voters,” said Kostrzewa, a senior assistant Muskegon County prosecutor. “I just want to make sure that the count of the votes is accurate.”

Kostrzewa noted that the margin was only four-tenths of 1 percent of the votes cast, close enough to trigger an automatic recount in some states, though not in Michigan.

Smedley said she doesn’t expect the outcome to change. “The county clerk’s office and the local clerks did an awesome job,” she said. “The voters spoke. I don’t think the results will change.”

Raymond J. KostrzewaContributed

Annette SmedleyContributed

Kostrzewa filed his recount request with the Board of State Canvassers on Wednesday, shortly before the deadline to do so. He had 48 hours after the completion of the state canvass of the election, which was completed Monday.

According to the results reported on the Michigan Secretary of State’s website, Smedley won by a margin of 234 votes out of 56,730 cast in the countywide race. Smedley’s reported total was 28,482, Kostrzewa’s was 28,248.

The cost of a recount wasn’t immediately clear. Kostrzewa must pay at least a portion unless the outcome changes: Under state law, a candidate requesting a recount must put up a deposit of $10 for each precinct being recounted. In Muskegon County that’s 113 precincts, counting absentee precincts, according to the Muskegon County Clerk’s office. The deposit is refunded if the recount changes the outcome.

The recount will be conducted next week at Laketon Township Hall, starting Tuesday and continuing Wednesday and, if necessary, Thursday. It will be under the authority of the Board of State Canvassers, but Muskegon County’s board of canvassers will appoint the recount team.

A recount is different from the retabulation of ballots that’s already been done by the county and state boards of canvassers. In the retabulations, canvassers simply verified results in precincts where the reported number of ballots cast and the number of voters didn’t match up – for example, if a ballot jammed in the electronic counting machine and didn’t record results. Ballots weren't inspected by hand.

In the 14th Circuit judge’s race, the retabulations narrowed the outcome slightly, trimming the Smedley-Kostrzewa gap by 18 votes from the originally reported 252-vote margin.

In a recount, the recount team does an actual hand-and-eyeball inspection of every ballot cast in the judge’s race, looking at each ballot to make sure proper marks were made in the correct space.